May 05, 2008

We just learned that U of M tuition will increase to over $10,000/year. Back in the stone age when I was an undergraduate, I managed to support myself and put myself through college with a succession of low-paying part-time jobs. I don't think that would be do-able today.

The recent report by Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability entitled, The Growing Imbalance, reports that at public institutions of higher learning, students are paying more for less:

Are college tuitions rising because spending is growing?If so, where is the money going?

For more than three-quarters of the students enrolled in higher education, the answer is no: students at public institutions are paying for a higher proportion of costs, but their money is not translating into a higher level of service. These students are paying more, and getting less.

The report goes on to tell us where the money is going:

Where spending is going up, it is not for the most part going into core academic programs. The greatest increases have been in contracted funding for research and public service, and for institutional aid. Except for the private research sector, the share of spending going to instruction has merely kept pace with inflation, and has actually been reduced at public two year institutions.

I was just reading about the life of Isabel Paterson, who grew up in Canada and northern US as one of nine children in a family that lived for a long time in tents. Her formal education consisted of two years in a country school between the ages of 11 to 14.

She grew up to be one of the most influential literary critics during the 1920's, '30's and '40's, writing a column for the New York Herald Tribune.

So if institutions of higher learning are pricing themselves out of the market, maybe that's a good thing. In addition to saving tons of money by not pursuing secondary education, a young person might increase her likelihood of success in life simply by not being saddled with all of the baggage that comes from years in institutions that are so woefully lacking in intellectual diversity.